Library Services

Discover the range of services at the Saint Louis University - Madrid library

Reference Help

The library offers on-demand seminars on library use for students and faculty. In
addition, when asked by individual faculty members, library staff will give in-class
presentations. The usual topics are:

Virtual tutorials on the use of library’s online catalog and databases are also available
for library patrons to view, prepared by librarians at SLU. Books in the SLU-Madrid
library collection are shelved on site in Madrid. Any directions given in the virtual
tutorials on how to locate materials apply only to the St. Louis libraries. The tutorials
are useful for SLU-Madrid students to learn how to use the online catalog.

Requests

If a book cannot be located in the general collection, you can request a search by
filling out a search-request card at the circulation desk. When found, the book will
be held at the circulation desk for you and you will be notified.

If the book is not found within five working days, you will be notified. If you still
require the book, you may make a suggestion for future purchase or an interlibrary
loan request.

Supply as much information as you have available about the item you are requesting.
Once the library receives your suggestion, your petition will be processed. The library
will notify you if there any problems with the request. You can check out the status
of your order by searching the library’s online catalog or contacting the library
administration by email.

Occasionally faculty members may need or wish to make direct purchases of materials
for the library. However, reimbursement for such items will only be made if prior
authorization was obtained from their department head and/or library office and a
proper bill turned into the library office along with the item purchased.

Any item ordered for the library is meant to be housed in the library and be available
to all library users. Faculty members wishing to acquire materials exclusively to
aid in preparation of classes should speak to their department head as procedures
and budgets are different. Such items would be retained by the department rather than
placed in library collection.

The SLU-Madrid library offers an interlibrary loan/document delivery service (ILL/DDS)
to all university library patrons. All requests for ILL/DDS are handled through the
library office. The library can provide all patrons with electronic delivery of journal
articles and/or pages from books available in the print collection of Missouri campus
libraries, free of charge. However, no loans are available for such print materials.
Faculty, staff and students may also be able to obtain items on loan as well as copies
from other institutions that the Madrid library works with.

We offer article delivery and interlibrary loan services at no cost to our users;
however, we ask that our patrons be mindful of the fact that the provision of these
services is not without cost to the library. In fact, the provision of these services
is quite expensive. Request only those items that you plan to use directly in the
course of your research, teaching and study.

We are happy to provide for your research, teaching and study needs, and will do our
absolute best to acquire or borrow the materials you need as quickly and efficiently
as possible. By being judicious in making your requests, you can help to ensure that
the library are able to continue providing these services free of charge.

Important: In accordance with international copyright legislation, libraries cannot
make copies of more than 10 percent of the text of a book (or occasionally, one chapter)
or one article from a journal. Take note of number of pages a book contains as indicated
on catalog record before placing request.

All requests for copies must be placed through the Madrid library office, as ILL/DDS
is a service that functions between libraries and not individuals and libraries. To
place an ILL/DDS request, fill out the appropriate form and send.

ILL materials must be returned to the ILL/DDS department during regular library hours.
The borrower is responsible for all costs associated with lost or damaged items. The
lending library assesses the charges for lost/damaged items accordingly.

Course Reserves

Faculty members may request that the library place certain materials on reserve for
use by students in specific courses. Reserve materials may be traditional reserve
materials or electronic materials.

Copyrighted materials must adhere to current copyright regulations in effect on all
SLU campuses. The library has the right to refuse any materials for reserve which
may infringe copyright.

Note that at the beginning of each semester please allow for a minimum of seven days
for reserve materials in any format to become available for student use, due to the
high volume of requests that we will be asked to process at these times. Also, be
aware that all items placed on reserve (both traditional and electronic) will be automatically
removed at end of each semester/summer term. If you plan to use same materials in
following semester, then please notify us in advance.

Traditional Reserve Materials

Traditional reserve materials can be print materials (books, journals), audiovisual
materials in library collection or photocopied material. Such materials are available
to students upon request at the library office and are kept on the reserve shelf until
the end of the academic term. Print materials can be made available for use in the
library only or for loan periods of one, two or three days, according to the course
instructor’s request.

Audiovisual materials such as CDs, DVDs or tapes can only be used by students in the
library. The library will not place reference materials on reserve as these are already
non-circulating items readily available to all students.

Any photocopied material that an instructor wishes kept on reserve must be prepared
by that instructor, handed in with the request form and include complete bibliographical
information.

For books: author, title, publisher, year of publication and exact page numbers

Copies should be one-sided, clear and the pages of the set individually numbered.
All photocopied material must adhere to current copyright regulations in effect on
all SLU campuses.

Any materials lent temporarily to the library from your personal libraries should
accompany the request form. These will be returned to you at end of the term. Nonetheless,
the library cannot assume responsibility for loss or damage to such materials.

Electronic Reserve Page (ERes)

Faculty may also ask library staff to create an Electronic Reserve Page for them on
which certain types of materials (e.g. articles from journals, chapters from books,
and links to websites) will be kept in electronic format.